Undead Astronauts

“The Bell curve is a fact of life. The blacks on average score 85 per cent on IQ and it is accurate, nothing to do with culture. The whites score on average 100. Asians score more … the Bell curve authors put it at least 10 points higher. These are realities that, if you do not accept, will lead to frustration because you will be spending money on wrong assumptions and the results cannot follow.” – Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997

“I started off believing all men were equal. I now know that’s the most unlikely thing ever to have been, because millions of years have passed over evolution, people have scattered across the face of this earth, been isolated from each other, developed independently, had different intermixtures between races, peoples, climates, soils… I didn’t start off with that knowledge. But by observation, reading, watching, arguing, asking, that is the conclusion I’ve come to.” – Lee Kuan Yew, The Man & His Ideas, 1997

these quotes would pretty much get any existing american politician voted out of office, but being then leader of an east asian authoritarian city-state enables you to ignore most of your critics if they disagree. i mention lee b/c he is singled out in a new paper on the impact of smart fractions. it says he is the only world leader that has pursued public policy which, in effect, is pro-eugenic in it’s implications. lee actually went as far as favoring polygamy for ppl wealthy enough to afford it b/c of the biological implications (although the idea wasn’t implemented).

anyways, the new paper (first seen at isteve) does unveil some interesting correlations. here’s the abstract:

Smart fraction theory supposes that gifted and talented persons are especially relevant for societal development. Using results for the 95th percentile from TIMSS 1995-2007, PISA 2000-2006 and PIRLS 2001-2006 we calculated an ability sum value (N=90 countries) for the upper level group (equivalent to a within country IQ-threshold of 125 or a student assessment score of 667) and compared its influence with the mean ability and the 5th percentile ability on wealth (GDP), patent rates, Nobel Prizes, numbers of scientists, political variables (government effectiveness, democracy, rule of law, political liberty), HIV, AIDS and homicide. Additionally, using information on school and professional education, we estimated the cognitive competence of political leaders in N=90 countries. Results of correlations, regression and path analyses generally show a larger impact of the smart fractions’ ability on positively valued outcomes than of the mean result or the 5th percentile fraction. The influence of the 5th percentile fraction on HIV, AIDS and homicide, however, was stronger. The intelligence of politicians was less important, a longitudinal crosslagged analysis could show a positive influence on the cognitive development of nations.

btw, if u end up clicking on the links to the smart fraction theory, try to read it critically and unemotionally. u might remember that i mentioned asians lagged on the verbal components compared to caucasians in the past, and then i found reason to doubt that there is any lag at all. just keep in mind that none of this is settled science and new findings may overturn previously held suppositions.

here are the top 10 ranking smart faction nations. the numbers shown are the avg iq of the 95th percentile of test takers:

1. singapore – 127
2. s. korea – 125
3. japan – 124
4. new zealand – 122
5. taiwan – 122
6. kazakhstan – 122
7. australia – 121
8. uk – 121
9. hong kong – 121
10. liechtenstein – 121

looking at the list, kazakhstan might stand out as unusual, and, in fact, the data from that nation is mentioned as slight and possibly unrepresentative.